The top 30 SNES games matchup: vote on the big 4 developers vs the top 30 rebels

We just did a selective creation style group list for the top 30 SNES games NOT developed by Nintendo, Square, Capcom or Konami:

Soul Blazer

Shin Megami Tensei If...

Super R-Type

Mortal Kombat 2

Brawl Brothers

Lufia 2

Dragon Quest V

ActRaiser

Harvest Moon

Blackthorne

NBA Jam

Terranigma

Shadowrun

Super Star Wars

Earthworm Jim 2

Gemfire

Lost Vikings

Doom Troopers

Umihara Kawase

Pocky & Rocky

Flashback

Shin Megami Tensei

EVO: The Search For Eden

Joe & Mac

Tales of Phantasia

Skyblazer

Actraiser 2

Bugs Bunny Rabbit Rampage

Illusion of Gaia

The 7th Saga

Of course, this begs for a comparison with the top 30 SNES games that were developed by Nintendo, Square, Capcom, and Konami. I've taken the liberty of compiling a representative list using various sources:

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

Chrono Trigger

Super Metroid

Final Fantasy VI

Super Mario World

Super Street Fighter II Turbo

Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island

Super Mario Kart

Star Fox

Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars

Secret of Mana

Mega Man X

EarthBound

Final Fantasy IV

Tetris Attack

Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy Kong's Quest

Super Punch-Out!!

F-Zero

Super Castlevania IV

Mario Paint

Contra III: The Alien Wars

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time

Donkey Kong Country

Mega Man X2

Legend of the Mystical Ninja

Sim City

UN Squadron

Kirby Super Star

Zombies Ate My Neighbors

Super Ghouls n' Ghosts

PART 1 - which list is better:

Is the second list better overall than the first? Yeah, probably. But win or lose, those 30 'rebel' games might put up a decent fight given the right chance, so let's do that. We're going to vote on 30 head to head matchups:

(Note: This is the first time I've used this voting website, let me know if something doesn't seem right. I believe you also need to use the honor system in regards to repeat surveys.)

If you've ever seen team matches in chess or certain 1v1 esports, then the concept is similar. Each "team" has 30 players, who compete in 30 head to head matches. Each win is worth 1 point, and the team with the most points is the "winner". Of course, we're the ones determining who wins each "match" through our votes for one game or the other. It will also be interesting to see how many total votes each team earns.

If you want your vote to be counted, please make a point of doing so in the coming days. I will hold off compiling the results for at least 3 days (until mid-day Sunday, Jan 7th).

As an aside, I thought about what the most fun and illuminating ways would be to vote on one list vs another, but since we are limited to what polling websites can offer this is the best structure I could come up with. An elimination tournament or some kind of ranked voting would be cool too, but I couldn't find websites to do that for us automatically.

PART 2 - everything else:

Not necessarily related to the above poll, you may post whatever freeform discussion you'd like:

For starters, why not take two of these 60 games and stake out a spicy opinion of your own?

What games should have made it in either list, or were you hoping would make it?

Spicy opinion time: Soul Blazer > Link to the Past. It certainly didn't start out that way for me, but over time replaying Soul Blazer never ceases to please.

I was hoping King Arthur's World would make it on to our top 30. It probably would have been my next pick, but I felt I properly should put other favorites ahead of it (despite those being generally more well known than KAW).

For the top 30 Nintendo/Capcom/Square/Konami list, I would personally rank Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts much higher. I also feel Tetris Attack, DKC2 and F-Zero are rather weak contenders for the spots they occupy (again, according to personal preferences).

Oh man, while there are definitely some Big Guns in there I would pick up and play way before the little guys (some I have beat multiple times), there are others that I would outright ignore. Very interesting match-ups.

In particular, Kirby and Link just hit the sweet spot for me. Tough competition for ANYTHING there.

Personally, my preferred picks won 22 out of 30 of these matchups. The 0-7 sweeps weren't too surprising. As always in top SNES lists, i feel that The Lost Vikings doesn't get its proper due. But Pocky & Rocky broke through at least!